The Southwest Virginia Partnership supports K-12 teacher and student development through a number of innovative projects. A sampling of them is listed here.
Early Language and Literacy
The years between birth and age two are critical for children. This creates a narrow window of  opportunity
for us to set the path for early language and literacy skills which are essential to the later
success of children in school. Waiting until children reach kindergarten to teach these skills virtually
guarantees that they will never catch up to their peers in reading and comprehension.
A team has been assembled to address this challenge, which includes early language and literacy experts
from our Curry School of Education, KidCentral (the local Head Start program), UVa.’s College
at Wise departments of education and nursing, and East Tennesee State University.
A unique and powerful aspect of this community-based initiative is that it addresses the inherent
connection between health and education. Teachers often become frustrated that health issues limit
students, and health care providers cannot deliver complete care if their patients are unable to read and write. Our team of educators and nurses are very eager to be working together and tackling this
problem in a comprehensive manner. Students from the departments of education and nursing will
team up to regularly visit families and guide them in how to read, talk, and interact with their children
and how to prepare nutritious food for better health. Based on this pilot we will be able to develop
larger scale programs that tackle these root causes of poverty, resulting in a healthier population
with an improved chance of success in school.
Academic Community Engagement
Our new Jefferson Public Citizens program builds upon U.Va.’s notable public service and outreach
efforts by formalizing community engagement pathways for faculty, students, and community members.
Its aim is to integrate leadership and academic research to help solve complex self-identified
community problems that require multidisciplinary solutions. To reaffirm our commitment to partnering
with Southwest Virginia on economic development issues, we have given funding preference
to those projects which are based in the Coalfield region.
During FY09 U.Va.’s Office of University Community Partnerships funded three Southwest Virginia focused
teams. Work will be conducted during the 2009-2010 school year on the following topics:
- Dental Health: A 3rd year human biology student will conduct a project during summer 2009 in
conjunction with the Southwest Virginia Health Authority and the Healthy Appalachia Institute.
The project is titled: “More than a Cavity: Utilizing Dental Hygienists to Improve Dental Health in
Southwest Virginia.”
- Affordable Housing: A faculty academic-community engagement fellow grant was awarded to
John Quale, faculty member in the School of Architecture to teach a course titled, “Evaluating
ecoMOD, ecoMOD Design Studio and ecoMOD Engineering class.” The ecoMOD Project (http://
www.ecomod.virginia.edu) is focused on creating highly energy-efficient and prefabricated
homes for affordable housing organizations and will collaborate with People Incorporated of Virginia.
- Green Building Design: Related to the project above, a Jefferson Public Citizens student group
project entitled “ecoMod Project in Southwest Virginia” will also work with People Incorporated
of Southwest Virginia to bring the green designs of the ecoMOD project to that region. Once an
appropriate design is created, this group will work
Graduate Degrees
Thirty-six residents of Southwest Virginia earned advanced degrees this year from U.Va. without
leaving home. We offered classes in the region because we understand the unique challenges for
adult learners. Teachers face intense demands in the classroom. Trying to combine a day job with
graduate school requires perseverance and dedication. Not many are able to leave family and work
commitments behind and travel hundreds of miles to participate in an on-Grounds program.
Our School of Continuing and Professional Studies and Curry School of Education tailored two
separate M.Ed. programs to the needs of area teachers, delivering instruction at locations throughout
Southwest Virginia. This investment in future leaders will strengthen K-12 education by making
certain that these committed professionals have the tools they need to build and maintain successful
learning communities.
Twenty-one teachers graduated with an M.Ed. in Administration and Supervision and will now have
the opportunity to become principals and superintendents in their home region. In fact, since graduating
in May 2009 twenty per cent of this cohort has been hired into new administrative positions in
Dickenson and Wise counties. Fifteen very motivated teachers graduated with an M.Ed. in Instruction,
which will not only make them even better teachers but will allow them to support their colleagues
in best practices. The positive impact these graduates will have on generations of students is
immeasurable.
Teaching American History
Effective teachers continually seek to increase their knowledge in content areas. We are leveraging the nationally and internationally recognized scholarship and teaching of our history department at the University of Virginia to help teachers in Southwest Virginia become even more informed on topics they cover in the classroom. The Center for the Liberal Arts (CLA) collaborates with the Southwest Virginia Public Education Consortium on a series of Teaching American History grants to provide K-12 teachers in 16 school divisions with subject matter expertise.
Currently, a cohort of 45 teachers from Southwest Virginia is participating in the most recent Teaching American History grant designed to immerse them in the major events of American history. During spring 2009 they participated in three one-credit courses: “Jamestown and its Legacy,” “Eighteenth Century Virginia,” and “The American Revolution: New Appraisals,” all of which were taught in the region. Additionally, throughout the summer of 2009, U.Va. doctoral students are serving as research assistants for these teachers, using the resources of the University to delve into specific topics and provide background and analysis that can augment the K-12 curriculum and classroom discussions in schools across Southwest Virginia.
CLA and the Consortium collaborated on a proposal that was funded in July 2009 for $1.6 million to create a cohort of history specialists, modeled on U.Va.’s successful math specialists program. This four-year sequence of intensive professional development activities will advance the cohort’s knowledge of American history and their ability to communicate the content knowledge as effectively as possible. When the teachers return to their individual schools they will serve as powerful resources for their colleagues, building capacity in the region through a “train the trainer” model, or in this case, an “educate the educator” model. This is truly a broad partnership, including not only CLA and the Consortium, but also U.Va.’s College at Wise, Curry School of Education, School of Continuing and Professional Studies, Miller Center of Public Affairs, and the Corcoran Department of History. |
